This massive sprawling lava pit is among the game's worst stages, but what can you do. Populating the great lavalake are enormous magma guardians that will jump on you and kick you and do all sorts of nasty things. The only two saving graces of these enemies is that one, once killed they never respawn, and two, they can just as easily kill each other as you. With a mage the Homing Soulmass made taking them down quite bearable, but I remember trying to clear them out with my melee character and it was just one big mess.

However you wish to approach the dungeon is your call. One quick thing to note is that if you die, collecting your soul back is a big pain in the ass. The best way to do it is to angle the camera down as much as possible, you should just barely be able to see the soft glow of the bloodstain. It'll look more like a black patch against the lava than the regular green glow when looking at it from nearby.

In terms of items to collect, on the far left side you'll find a SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR, and if you hug the wall to the right, hidden behind a big root there's two DIVINE BLESSING. There are two kind of "safe huts" in the centre of the big lava pool. The closest has an opening on the side and a chest in it containing SOUL OF A GREAT HERO. Just outside it a few steps away down the stairs is a corpse with a SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR.

The other safe hut has no obvious door, but if you strike the wall facing the opposite side of the lava lake, it will open up to reveal a bonfire. Heading directly straight out of this door will also lead you to the exit of this area, a flat tree root that leads up and above the wall.

Make your way down and through the tunnel. At the top of the stairs on the other side you'll have to fight and kill some kind of weird tentacle monster. Enter the small room at the top of the stairs and remember this point because you'll have to return a couple of times. Turn right when you exit and run to the end of the path, there's a long tree branch that takes you all the way down above the entrance of the tunnel. If you drop very carefully here you can land on a RARE RING OF SACRIFICE. Go back up and then down the same branch, drop off earlier to get the item you see, a SOUL OF A HERO.

Head back up to that small room again. This time when you exit, go down the tree root directly in front of you. At the bottom you can go either right up some stairs or left into a tunnel. If you enter the tunnel the floor collapses, so let's go up the stairs first. Defeat another crippled demon to get DEMON TITANITE (x2) (be very careful of rolling to avoid attacks, it's not too wide a bridge). Beyond him is a bunch of bugs, and if you didn't save him, hallow Solaire. Defeating him will get you HUMANITY (x2), SUNLIGHT STRAIGHT SWORD, SUNLIGHT SHIELD, SUNLIGHT TALISMAN, IRON HELM, ARMOR OF THE SUN, IRON BRACELET and IRON LEGGINGS.

Now turn around and run straight ahead. Stay on the left of the tunnel and you should be able to land on a tree root going down. Make your way down to the bottom and then approach one of the outer edges (you'll notice i the centre it's full of sarlaac monsters, you don't want to drop down there. Equip the Rusted Iron Ring before you drop down, and something with poison protection if you care about that. Run around the edge to find a chest containing RED TITANITE SLAB, then up one of the sets of stairs to find a corpse with RED TITANITE CHUNK.

Back down at the bottom, find your way into the middle and prepare yourself. These stupid things spray a gas similar to the Gaping Dragon that destroys all your equipment if you're hit by it. Mages, keep you distance, melee characters, well, good luck. Inside the middle of the room you'll find RED TITANITE CHUNK, SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR, and GREEN TITANITE SHARD (x2). Might not be worth it.

The other set of stairs leads up and back out the tree root to the top. Make your way back to that little room before you came down into this section. It's finally time to move ahead up the stairs. There's a crazy pyromancer at the top that drops the IZALITH CATALYST. Continue down the stairs straight ahead and around the corner. Behind the enemy is a chest containing PYROMANCY: CHAOS FIRE WHIP. Now you are ready to face the boss, head down to the fog door you just passed a few seconds ago.

BOSS: BED OF CHAOS

This is one of the easiest bosses in the game if you know what you're doing. The nice thing is that the boss is that you can actually make progress on it that doesn't reset when you die, so it will inevitably get easier and easier, even if you have to respawn.

The trick to this boss is destroying the two glowing red orbs on either side of it. To do so, run forward toward the orb, staying in close to the boss with just enough radius to reach the orbs. Make sure you run with your shield up to block the swinging branch attacks. The ground will start to fall out from below you which is the primary cause of death in this fight, but again, if you stay close to the boss while running you should avoid most of the holes regardless of which side you're running toward.

After you've broken through the branches and destroyed the orb, it will be destroyed forever, you won't have to do it again even if you die. Once you've taken one out, head back around and destroy the other. With both gone, the boss is now vulnerable.

To kill the boss, head directly toward him from the centre of the room where you land. As you approach him suddenly a huge hole in the ground will open up, and below it is a single tree root platform that you can leap to. This leads right up into the centre of the boss (just watch out from the swinging arm attacks as you go up). Once you're inside you're home free. Roll through the dense branches until you get to a little creature in the centre. One hit and the boss is dead.

For beating him you get the LORD SOUL and 40,000 souls.

Now is your chance to go back and do everything you want to do with your character before completing the game. Make sure to take advantage of all the opportunities you have to collect items now that you think you are going to need for New Game+. Some good examples are the trades from Snuggly the Crow, and more Fire Keeper Souls by killing the three Fire Keepers (the one at the Anor Londo Bonfire, the one right in Firelink Shrine, and the one at the back of Quelaag's Domain near the entrance to the Demon Ruins).

Have Frampt take you down from the Firelink Shrine into the altar and give all four of the souls from the previous four main bosses to open the way to the Kiln of the FIrst Flame. The path to the final boss is dangerous, but compeltely straightforward. There are no items to find here.

BOSS: Gwyn, Lord of Cinder

Unlike the final boss in Demon's Souls, this guy really packs a punch. In fact, unlike most of the other bosses in Dark Souls, there's rarely a period of time in which he isn't charging at you full force. This is without a doubt, the hardest boss in the game to heal against.

Of course, this isn't too say it's impossible. There are two strategies for this boss using a melee character. The strategy most recommended is the riposte strategy: get relatively close, block his first attack with your shield and then use the L2 button to riposte his second swing. While he's vulnerable, that's your chance to strike. If he steps forwad for a grab, simply step back and wait for his combo so you can repeat the process.

The second method is to simply prompt him to do either the grab or kick attack. This means staying as close as possible. Much of the time the boss will still use his sword combo, which you should either block with a 100% physical and fire resistant shield, or roll underneath; just beware that his attack often has up to four swings.

When the boss finally does reach out to grab, or try and kick, that is you chance to get either 2 or 3 good strikes in before he comes after you again. The grab attack is also the one chance you have long enough to heal and still safely get out of the way of his next attack (the only other opportunity you get is when he jumps back and you can get one of the rock pillars between his line-of-sight.

It's a very skill-based fight, and serves as a very appropriate final boss battle. Once you get his pattern down you'll find he's a lot easier than he seemed at first, but he leaves very little room for error. Make sure your equipment is up to the task just as well as you are.

Finally, for a mage, the Homing Soulmass spells are very effective against the boss. Your strategy will be similar to melee, sometimes prompting him to do a grab attack so you can either heal, or get off another spell.

So that's it. Now you can choose one of two endings. Either light the bonfire, or leave it dark, and exit the room.

When the credits finish you'll be back at the back at the beginning in New Game+ with all of your equipment, moderately boosted soul rewards, and heavily boosted enemies. Good luck.

Copyright 2011 A I e x.

Written for, and hosted exclusively at www.GameFAQs.com

If you have any questions, comments or corrections, you can reach me either at staroceandc@gmail.com or by sending a PM through GameFAQs.

Unfortunately I wrote the majority of this guide on my macbook which seems to have its own version of autocorrect it likes to spring on me without notice. I've done my best to give the guide a quick once over, replacing instances of "minibus" with my original "miniboss" and such, but if you come across any errors (especially repeat ones) I'd appreciate you letting me know. Thanks, hope you enjoyed it.